Trip To Neelam Valley via Nurinar Pass on UNIMOG
Let me start with a short history of vehicle we used for this expedition, Unimog designates a range of multi-purpose All wheel drive medium trucks produced by Mercedes-Benz, a division of Daimler AG. The name Unimog is pronounced in German and is an acronym for the German "UNIversal-MOtor-Gerät", Gerät being the German word for machine or device. They are built in the Mercedes truck plant in Wörth am Rhein in Germany. (Wikipedia).
We purchased a Unimog U-600 from Armed Core Multan 2 months back with original engine, gearbox and suspension, rust free cabin and chassis & started our rushed restoration project which was completed within 15 days, we went by the PMI standard for this project, had few brainstorming sessions & distributed work to be done among the troops for this mission & everyone had very short deadlines. So, we were up for our excursion on Unimog on 4x4 terrain connecting “Village Shah All Ditta with Khan Pur Dam via Margalla Hills” & all of us were amazed on the performance, power, ground clearance, road grip, traction, performance in mud, performance in water, performance on 30 degree side slopes, low rev gears & list continues…..
"After restoration & throttle testing of Unimog, we started our search for off-road tracks which are ignored/unknown to tourist but known as toughest to be attempted. Thanks to Mr. Asad Sheikh who pointed out a jeep track connecting Sharda -Neelam Valley to Jalkhad - Naran Valley via Nurinar pass. So we started our planning and assigned departments to each participants with clear job descriptions, Trip Lead Mr. Asad Sheikh, CFO Mr. Rizwan Khaliq, Trip operations & Admin Mr. Saleem Ullah Baig, Media Mr. Ustad Jee (Khurram Shahzad Bhatti), Food Mr. Atta Rasool later terminated as he ruined the chicken Pulao in Sharda & saying that quality of rice wasn’t good and he was willing to take this to court for justice says Sheikh Trip Lead & Mr. Sardar Jee (Burhan Habib), Entertainment & Fun was taken care of by Mr. Half-Life (Shehzada Umer Naseer) description will come in later topics, Driving & Technical Myself & bro. We finalized the following route & arranged GPS from our technical expert of previous trips Mr. Ali Sarwar, he also gave us a survival toolkit which was a life saver for us in the later stages of the trip: "Islamabad – Hassan Abdal – Abbotabad – Mansehra – Balakot – Kewai – Naran – Jalkhad – Nurinar Top (midway point) – Sharda – Kel – Shounter Vallery – Sharda - Kundal Shahi – Muzafarabad – Muree – Islamabad
These points were not marked earlier on Google Earth thanks to Ali’s GPS
Wednesday July 23suprd/sup 11:30PM – Tranool
All participants gathered in Tranool warehouse where we parked the truck and packed & loaded our luggage in Unimog and hired the driver to drive it for us till Balakot on Thursday Morning @ 80AM so can we save few driving hours & stay comfortable for initial 190KM so we planned to start our journey from ISB-MSC on Thursday @ 40PM in a Air conditioned Hiace till Balakot and send the driver back to Tarnool.
Thursday July 24supth/sup 40PM – Islamabad MSC
Atta & Burhan are missing, very hot & humid weather and remaining of us were waiting for the VAN to take us till Balakot. Finally @ 4:30PM VAN arrived so as Burhan (we picked atta on the way) and started the expedition. Unfortunately A/C wasn’t working & the driver was too slow, so neither we saved time nor stayed comfortable till Balakot.
Thursday July 24supth/sup 10:30PM – Balakot :-N 34°33.061’ E 073°21.168’
We reached Balakot and thanked the capsule driver for awesomely slow and safe driving and spa like condition inside, anyways he took the hired driver back to Tarnool & we refilled the fuel tank of Unimog, had dinner and left Balakot @ 11:50PM. GPS was showing Top Speed of 38KM/H & our average speed was 18KM/H due frequent braking for land sliding area.
Friday July 25supth/sup 1:20 AM – Kewai :- N 34°37.815’ E 073°26.234’ Elevation 4701 ft
its Midnight, we can hardly see moon however, sky is bright with stars which are usually not seen in cities due to pollution, weather is very comfortable with no humidity @ all, passengers are having fun except Atta who was sleeping all the way. Unimogs engine sounds heavy now, let’s see if its heating up, Mr. Operations and technical team got out and saw a water hosepipe (connecting radiator with engine) is disconnected and its making too much pressure and steam, sounds like a bad news since our research says Unimog engine never heats up (this rule applies on all German vehicles) so we didn’t focused our planning on this particular issue & didn’t had spares for the same. Anyways we managed to find a loose clip on pipe and within 10 minutes we tightened that up, filled-in fresh Shogranstream cool water and kept the radiator cap open so can pressure is released from the engine instead of damaging the water lines. We were optimistic till next 20min and again engine was heating up and sound heavier with low pulling power on steeps. So we drove till next stream and filled the water, that practice continued all night & we used every bottle which we had on the truck, so accidentally a bottle of sprite and kerosene oil was also drunk by Unimog. Khanian N 34°43.778’ E 073°30.371’ Elevation 5770 ft Mahandri N 34°41.530’ E 073°34.606’ Elevation 5051 ft ParasN 34°39.623’ E 073°27.391’ Elevation 4387 ft
Friday July 25supth/sup 4:40 AM – Kaghan :- N 34°47.068’ E 073°31.264’ Elevation 6736 ft
Everyone is feeling tired specifically the team who was involved in keeping the engine cool and jumping out of the truck on almost every water except Atta who was still sleeping. In Kaghan we observed that the fan belt is loose and its moving the radiator fan properly & we optimistically thought that it could be the reason for engine heat up, so we tried to tightened that up but we didn’t had right size tool to do that, so we used a jack rod and a hammer to fix it & moved forward.
Friday July 25supth/sup 5:15 AM – Somewhere between Naran & Kaghan :- N 34°49.183’ E 073°31.120’ Elevation 7036 ft
Engine Heating Up, we were tired like you people are tired of reading this issue again and again, anyways we had 2 points in mind, 1 of them was the “water body” (it’s the key machine which revolves the water in the engine and keep it cool) which we replaced in last week while we were double checking all mechanical things on Unimog for the expedition and replaced it with a new one which we thought is malfunctioning. 2supnd/sup point was that we may have fired up the Gaskit (which sperates water & oil in the engine block and if its fired up engine starts mixing water in Mobil oil and starts getting heat up very frequently), we knew both of these points didn’t had a solution in Naran since it’s hard to find the spares of Unimog in the twin Rawalpindi/Islamabad {Great Learning Experience}.
Friday July 25supth/sup 6:45 AM – Naran :- N 34°54.021’ E 073°38.855’ Elevation 7898 ft
Beautiful valley, super clean fresh air water, very calm with a little noise of river Kunhar, weather was pleasant and we were glad that we have managed to reach Naran and stopped @ a hotel for Breakfast. As per plan Naran was only a waypoint and we had to reach Nurinar Top by Friday eve, but due to Unimogs performance spirits were down and everyone was feeling tired and was thinking what should be our next move. Any ways Mr. Operations took an anonymous decision (his all upcoming decisions were also anonymous) to camp under trees on the road going towards Lake Saiful Malook, luckily we were well prepared for this task, we had 4 tents and everyone had a sleeping bag or a blanket. A team of three was sent to look for a mechanic and try fixing this issue, so started our working on the updated plan.
Friday July 25supth/sup 8:30 AM – Naran :-
spanCalibri","sans-serif";" Mechanics are avoiding us, they don’t want to get any way near to Unimog, we were receiving answers like, i) sorry we don’t have time, ii) hey Look what is this, what engine it has, is it patrol or diesel? Iii) it’s too technical, pls toe it to Rawalpindi? iv) We don’t have tools for this, sorry! v) Let Me check if I can do something, finally we got a positive response from someone who is willing to help. Show is moving onn…
Friday July 25supth/sup 120 PM – Still Naran :-
Fan belt is re-fixed, all water pipes are double checked (there were 6 water intake points and seriously technical to understand the water flow) but issue isn’t resolved, mechanic is trying his best to “ged ir dun”, our cigarettes consumption is now increased from 2 cig/hour to 4 cig/hour & some nail biting by non smokers!
Friday July 25supth/sup 30 PM – Naran Camp Site :-
spanCalibri","sans-serif";"Shift changed on the Unimog mechanic duty, spirits are very low, and we asked Mr. Half Life (Shehzada Umer Naseer) to pls arrange some drinking water from Saiful Malook stream, he went to fill the bottles and accidentally slipped in fast moving water and somehow managed to grab a rock after 20 meters of rolling, water depth was less than 2 feet but it’s the water speed which carry’s the flow so help arrived after 5 minutes and we pulled him out, he looked fine with few scratches on arms, anyways this was the topic of discussion for next 5 hours and Mr. Shehzada sb. told this story to everyone separately to gain sympathy’s and started his packing for Islamabad for Saturday. As per Shehzada Sb. him it’s a new life for him but for us he is Mr. Half Life. But Atta was still sleeping! the new life of Shehzada was possible due to SWIMMING EXPERTISE of me because he was not trusting Basharat to cross a water of hardly 2 feet because Basharat did not know swimming He was very sad on this but somehow we pushed/pulled him and bring him back to life with again applying JUGATs and his half life went with the water.
spanCalibri","sans-serif";"Friday July 25supth/sup 50 PM – Naran Camp Site :-
spanCalibri","sans-serif";" Unimog arrived but not fixed yet, we finally able to connect a call to a Mercedes Expert in Rawalpindi “X shahnawaz mechanical unit supervisor & Unimog part supplier to pak Army”, he told us that Mercedes engine water “Air lock” thing which was very new for us and guided how to resolve it, so we went to river Kunhar with lots of bottles and started working on the fresh tips. Till that time we realized that head gaskit is still perfect, water body is working fine, engine is all good, there is an issue with water flow due to this “air lock” something which kept us all thinking till Saturday.
Friday July 25supth/sup 8:30 PM – Naran Dinner :-
spanCalibri","sans-serif";"Atta did a wonderful job and food was really delicious, we went into camps and started planning on way forward, few were very down and had plans to move back on a bus and rest of carry this Unimog back home. Anyways, Mr. Half life started to fill some color into the situation and we started to enjoy whatever experiences we had till that time & cross firing between camps started
Saturday July 26supth/sup 10:30 AM – Naran :-
We picked the mechanic from his workshop and started our working again on the Unimog, after an hour mechanic used all cards he had in his sleeves, and then comes the bro who was quite and thinking from past 1 hour, he opened the hosepipe which was leaked yesterday night and closed it with a plastic cup base in order to stop the flow of water from the pipe, and guess what issue resolved this was the happiest point of the Trip and show seems to be moving from here. So get your tea & coffee and enjoy the coming story
Saturday July 26supth/sup 1:45 PM – On the Way to Jalkhad :-
spanCalibri","sans-serif";" Everyone is smiling and happy, we are moving on high speed (out of coverage form this point onwards), Mr. Media Manager is out with three cameras and catching up every moment, weather is getting colder and we are gaining some height and touched 10k feets which was around 8k feets in Naran.
Saturday July 26supth/sup 30 PM - Batakundi :- N 34°55.916’ E 073°46.345” Elevation 8862 ft
We purchased chicken for BBQ, rice & moved on, checked the Unimog status and it was cool like a sprite. Atta is emphasizing the hygiene and willing to wash the chicken for next 3 hours, come on Atta we are getting late!!
Saturday July 26supth/sup 50 PM – Jalkhad :-N 35°00.054’ E 073°56.309’ Elevation 10235 ft
We had tea and took some information regarding the road status of Nurinar Top and moved on.
Saturday July 29supth/sup 5:50 PM – Somewhere between Jalkhad and Nurinar :-
Elevation 11.5k feets and it’s raining which isn’t a good sign for muddy track, anyways we kept on moving and rain didn’t lasted much, beautiful Nurinar Gali has started which is ending @ Nurinar peak, water is flowing very calmly and on this elevation trees don’t grow so area is filled with green grass and we can see few goats roaming around and missing the food we get in Namak Mandi Peshawar. Atta is back to sleep, he is really enjoying the comfort of Unimog’s coil spring suspension. Mr. Movie man is very busy in capturing the moments with camera.
Saturday July 29supth/sup 80 PM – Nurinar Top elevation 12.8k feet, temperature below 0 :-
N 34°55.859’ E 074°03.635’ Elevation 12882 ft
"This was undoubtedly the toughest terrain we have ever attempted with extremely steep slopes and very sharp and short curves, Unimog’s performance was outstanding which kept us safe and sound. It’s true that German vehicles never heats up “IF” engine’s water compartment is not air locked. It’s getting dark and very cold, guys move onn!
Saturday July 29supth/sup 10:25 PM – Nurinar to Surgan (Neelam valley) :-N 34°52.987’ E 074°10.086’ Elevation 8921 ft.
We are 30KM from LOC, vertical distance from Srinagar is 90 KMs, We are losing height with a much greater speed on which we gained it from Jalkahd to Nurinar, bends are having side slope of 20-30 degrees which means passenger have to balance to load on every turn in order to avoid roll over (we weren’t aware earlier that Unimog is very hard to roll over & kept our focus on wait balancing which @ later stages was discovered that there is no need for the same pls), it’s extremely dark and scary out there and everybody is praying for the safe return.
All the travel was in night and the passengers were also part of adventure and steering the vehicles while doing the LOAD BALANCING on sharp turns. Initially it was being done on Basharat instructions but later the passengers managed them on their own by shouting “driver side”, “passenger side” and people were using the thighs and laps of other side
Saturday July 29supth/sup 1:25 AM – Surgan :-
N 34°52.080’ E 074°11.509’ Elevation 6941 ft
Surgan is surrounded with the thickest Mapple tree forest which is very rare as Mapple wood is considered as very expensive, visibility was poor due to darkness but we could see what was near the road and height and width of the trees were truly amazing.
Sunday July 30supth/sup 20 AM Sharda – N 34°46.215’ E 074°08.777’ Elevation 6179 ft
We managed to reach Sharda and crossed the bridge which as per locals wasn’t suitable/strong enough to carry load of Unimog. We unloaded the luggage in Sharda rest house which was very peaceful and started cooking and BBQ (which was another anonymous decision) & few important decisions like firing the head of cooking department took place @ 3:30AM, you can call atta take his opinion on this.
Sunday July 30supth/sup 10 PM Sharda Temple
We went on a 10 minute tracking leading to Sharda Temple from rest house, which was a university in 200 B.C. made with huge relics and brief history regarding this is updated in the photo below. (Old name of Neelam River was Kishan Ganga). Regarding Sharda it’s a very peaceful lush green place, river flow is very slow, Sharda is basecamp for tracks like Nurinar, Shonter Valley, Chitta Katha lake, KEL, TAOBHAT & Hilmut and 10km away is village dowarian which has a track leading to Ratti Gali (lake), places listed above are known as the most beautiful places of Neelam Valley Kashmir and to viewing these places does require fair bit of tracking. However, we lost too much time on Friday on Unimog so the next anonymous decision was to head back towards home.
Sunday July 30supth/sup 20 PM Sharda to Kundal Shahi
spanCalibri","sans-serif";" – We are travelling right across the LOC, Indian flag can be seen on few of the hidden check posts, Unimog is looking like an ammo truck and we are now scared from firing across the border, we kept on asking the locals regarding situation (since Army personal were travelling in civil busses/bedford rockets)
Sunday July 30supth/sup 6:18 PM Kundal Shahi – N 34°33.279’ E 073°50.777’ Elevation 4350 ft
We stopped here and asked a local hotel to prepare food for us, we then move forward on the road to Kutton and Jagran power plant and stopped near a cool water stream, ate some fresh apples and had dinner @ 7:40 PM and left for Muzafarabad, road condition wasn’t great.
Monday July 30supth/sup 10 AM Muzafarabad :-N 34°22.935’E 073°27.860’ Elevation 2292 ft
Finally we got some coverage and everyone received a message from Boss to confirm if everything is fine which was sent @ 50PM, we were out of contact since Naran & search mission was in process on network switches, our arrival here relieved the pressure and advice from headquarter was to drive slowly & carefully or take rest. So, as per advice we re-fueled the tank and kept on moving @ safe speed from this point onwards and stopped @ Phagwari near Muree for tea.
Monday July 30supth/sup 5:45 AM Islamabad: -
Finally we reached home and it was a great trip, total Ascent was 20,348 ft and Max elevation was 12,909 feet from Balakot till Muzafarabad, anyone good @ using Google Earth can check all these places using the coordinates mentioned against each checkpoint.
